Large Alzheimer's study doubles number of associated genes

Monday

Oct 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2013 at 5:19 PM

WASHINGTON — In the largest ever genetic analysis conducted on Alzheimer's disease, an international group of researchers has identified 11 new genes associated with the disorder, doubling the number of known gene variants linked to it.

Tara Bahrampour

WASHINGTON — In the largest ever genetic analysis conducted on Alzheimer's disease, an international group of researchers has identified 11 new genes associated with the disorder, doubling the number of known gene variants linked to it.

The International Genomic Alzheimer's Project, a collaboration of two groups in the United States and two in Europe, scanned the DNA of 74,076 older volunteers from 15 countries — including people with and without the disease — to look for subtle gene variants involved in late-onset Alzheimer's, the most common form.

The study, which appeared Sunday in Nature Genetics, provides additional evidence of the involvement of certain genes in Alzheimer's, such as one connected to the abnormal accumulation of amyloid protein in the brain, which has been associated with the disease. It also finds new gene-related risk factors that may influence cell functions.

The 11 new genes join a growing list of known gene variants associated with late-onset Alzheimer's. Until 2009, only one had been identified; with the new findings, the list reached 22.

The identification of so many new genes offers promising new avenues to finding drug therapies, said Gerard Schellenberg, a professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania and the head of the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium.